The recent leak of the Dota 2 closed-beta client has revealed that there are a total of 75 heroes included in the game, far more than the 46 we saw in action at the International Dota 2 Championships in Gamescom last month. Other reveals include regional matchmaking, kill cams, a player ranking system and the inclusion of custom items, hinting at the possibility of a paid item shop.

I managed to acquire a copy of the Dota 2 client, and have been exploring what I could of it. Read on for the juicy details.

Client Information

The Dota 2 client I accessed was tagged as “Source Engine Build 4695, dota Version 40”. Another interesting note is that the dota.bsp map version was tagged as 22. Current Team Fortress 2 maps are version 20, and I wasn’t able to open the map using Nem’s Tools Object Viewer either.

The client did not have the server binaries included, so you can’t actually host games to play. In fact, you can’t do anything at all besides tweaking game settings, suggesting that this might be an early build. There are signs that it might be a build that predates the International tournament, as the Clorkwerk portrait is only represented by a placeholder in the client files.

Unless otherwise stated, the information below are from the English localisation strings, which can be found at:

\steamapps\common\dota 2 beta\dota\resource\dota_english.txt

Gameplay

Game Modes

All of the common game modes from Dota Allstars are carried forward into Dota 2 without any changes, with the exception of -dm Death Match mode, which has been renamed to Death Mode. The other game modes don’t appear in the localisation strings.

Captains Mode: Each captain removes up to 4 heroes. After that you enter the 1/2/2/ pick phase

Death Mode: If you die, you will have to pick a new hero once you can respawn

Easy Mode: Towers are weaker, experience is gained faster, and you get more periodic gold

Heroes

From top left to bottom right: Batrider, Bounty Hunter, Undying, Omniknight, Luna and Kunkka.

There are plans for 73 heroes, but at present only 46 heroes are enabled. Some of the additional heroes include the ever popular Batrider, Bounty Hunter, Undying, Omniknight and Luna. Portrait artwork, draft or final, are in place for all heroes with the exception of Alchemist, Clockwerk and Spirit Breaker in the game files.

Kill Cams

The localisation strings make reference to kill cams. These should be similar to the current Team Fortress 2 kill cams, where you’re shown your dead body and a still shot of the person who killed you, along with additional information such as the item the person was using and playing tips.

Achievements

Ah, what would a game be without achievements. The achievements revealed through the localisation strings are very basic, but that’s probably because the game is still in beta.

Vegetarian: Consume 3 trees using Tangoes.

First One’s Free: Complete your first game of Dota 2

Just A Taste: Participate in 10 games

Addicted: Participate in 100 games

I Can Quit Anytime: Participate in 1000 games

Party Time!: Complete a game while in a matchmaking party

Broadcaster Channel Languages

Included in the localisation strings are also the following language choices for broadcast streams. My guess is that these are for filtering through the in-game spectator and stream mode built into the game itself as we’ve seen at the International at Gamescom.

English

German

French

Italian

Korean

Spanish

Chinese (listed twice)

Russian

Thai

Japanese

Portugese

Polish

Danish

Dutch

Finnish

Norwegian

Swedish

Matchmaking

New Player Difficulty Select

It appears that new players will be able to select a “difficulty” level, probably for matchmaking purposes. The following strings were found:

New: You have a limited understanding of games like Dota. In your games players will be restricted to playing only those heroes that are easiest to understand, and levels will be auto-balanced.

Familiar: You have a good idea how Dota works – you might be a little rusty but are ready to jump in.

Experienced: You play games like Dota regularly and don’t need any instruction. Selecting this will make you less likely to be in hero restricted games with auto-balancing.

Player Ranking

Players will be ranked based on the ELO system. The ELO system is most well-known from its use in chess, and is a system that gives you a scaling number of points depending on the difficulty of your opponents. There is also a reference to “Karma”, which I can only guess to be some form of community ranking system.

Regional Matchmaking

The above image can be found buried in the client files, in a directory named “today”. I’ll hazard a guess and suppose it’s a featured story under the “Today in Dota” feature on the Dota client main menu. Well regional matchmaking is good and all, but what are the regions? The localisation strings comes to our rescue again:

Regions

Automatic

US West

US East

Europe

Hong Kong

Singapore

Shanghai

Beijing

And these regions are further divided into Match Groups:

North America – US West, US East

South America

China – Singapore, Shanghai

Europe – Europe

The regions which aren’t listed under a match group simply don’t have them listed. Matchmaking Region information can be found in:

\steamapps\common\dota 2 beta\dota\scripts\regions.txt

Item Shop

The localisation strings and other text also show strong signs that there will be custom wearable items included in Dota 2. These will be similar to Team Fortress 2 items, with provision for item levels, item rarity and item titles that changes as you gain number of kills built into the game.

One of the items specifically mentioned in the localisation strings are effects that will customise the look of hexes. You’ll be able to change them from the default of sheep to chicken, frog or a cheese (!). The files also make mention of custom weapons for the Antimage, custom shoulderpads for Beastmaster and a Top Hat for Axe (!).

Here are the relevant data I was able to find poking around in the strings files and other places:

Store Item Categories

New!

Bundles

Gear

Tools

Effects

Wearable Items

Weapon

Daggers

Glaives

Axes

Hat

Shoulder Guard

Bracer

Armor

Hair

Belt

Necklace

Mask

Cape

Boots

Gloves

Makeshift Prosthetic (Pegleg for Kunkka)

Custom Hex Model (Sheepstick)

Chicken

Frog

Cheese

For more quality Dota 2 coverage, read our interview with hyhy from team Scythe.SG (now MYM.Dota), third-placed team at the International Dota 2 Championships.